I have this habit—an occupational hazard, you might say. Whenever a new clothing collection is presented to me, my immediate reaction is to flip through my mental card catalog, imagining how many variations of it I can come up with. It's like a reality-show challenge playing on a loop inside my head.

In some cases, I'm thinking, How can I style this to make it better or different or just more versatile? (There's nothing a fashion editor loves more than options.) In others, it's just, How can I fix it? The one rule is that it has to be instinctive—an idea I come up with in seconds. Whether the clothes are good or not is irrelevant. Pants become cuffed shorts; maxis turn into minis; coats morph into cropped jackets. But occasionally—and I'm not admitting defeat here—a dress is a dress is a dress.

The real fun comes when I get to do it for real. I've consulted for numerous designers in this capacity, including the participants in my Sundance Channel series, All on the Line With Joe Zee. (Season two debuted in November.) The show puts my skill set to the test as I help struggling designers rethink their business—or save it. I'm trying to salvage real-life investments of career, reputation, dreams (and cash), so there's more at stake than just a game-show prize. During filming, each designer reveals his or her company's individual problems, but the universal weak link, I've found, is design. Here's where the restyling game I've cultivated all these years comes in: For each episode, I quickly scan the contestants' designs, determine their weaknesses, and get to work with—or in some cases, without—the designers' cooperation. It's that foolproof maxim: Improve the product—fashion, cupcakes, computers—and you improve your business.

For this month's column, I've done something a little different, taking one pre-makeover look from each of this season's designers and putting it through my personal spin cycle. Unlike the collaborative process you'll see on TV, these are my own "runway to reality" makeovers, a peek into the fantasy that plays nonstop in my head. As for what the All on the Line designers actually decide to do to their collections? You'll have to tune in and judge for yourself. And I think you'll be quite surprised.